Reader Submission - 2000 South Africa National Team Alan Verwey Jersey

Out latest reader submission comes from international jersey collector and expert Anthony Ferra, who we know from being a fellow board member at the IceJerseys.com forums. He's also personally responsible for several gems in the Third String Goalie collection, as his pursuits of rare and obscure jerseys has led to him having numerous contacts around the globe which sometimes make available to him some really hard to find and wonderful jerseys which don't fit his personal collection, but are too hard to find to pass up.

His original desire was to obtain some Italy jerseys due to his Italian heritage, but things eventually progressed to the point where his goal now is to collect not just a jersey, but a Nike or SP brand game worn or team issued jersey from every member nation of the IIHF from 1996-2002 era, and we're not talking easy ones like Canada and the United States, who regularly market their own, but countries who inhabit the lower divisions such as Ireland, New Zealand, Israel, Greece and Mongolia, who you wouldn't even expect to have a national hockey program!

With none of these jerseys from the lower division teams having been made specifically for retail sale, the only ones available had to have been made for the teams, and this limited supply only increases the challenge to find them enormously.

This already difficult quest certainly cannot be made any easier by Anthony being based in Arizona! But, thanks to internet forums and social media like facebook, he's been able to make contacts with not only collectors, but actual team players and staff of the lower ranked national teams in order to pursue his quest, which bring us to today's jersey.

This South Africa National Team jersey was worn in I THINK the 2000 IIHF Worlds (Pool D) by Alan Verwey. I actually traded for this jersey by sending some Roberto Luongo styled and colored Reebok goalie pads in exchange for a few jerseys. Alan gave the pads to his kids as a birthday gift. Later on I sent the matching blocker and glove in exchange for a few more. Along with this jersey I also received a game photo (which is VERY RARE to find for ANY level of the IIHF even 5 years ago).

What I really love about this jersey is the colors. Every bit of the flag is incorporated. It's one fo the most unique and in my opinion best looking national team jerseys of all time. I will forever hold onto this jersey as it's really one of a kind.

Truly a rare and unique jersey and if Anthony is impressed with how rare it is, trust us, it's rare. To see more of his collection, please click here to see jerseys from countries such as Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Croatia, Estonia, England, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Greece, Korea, Lithuania, Mexico, Mongolia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and Yugoslavia, which isn't even a country anymore!

His "Holy Grail" (or is it his "White Whale"?) remains the elusive North Korea Nike jersey. While he has obtained a couple of more recent vintage post-2002 North Korean jerseys from Tackla, the older Nike era style remains elusive no doubt due to the scarcity of the jerseys, the language barrier between him and any players who may have one, and the isolationist policies of the North Korean government, which limit it's few hockey playing citizens from having access to the internet in order to even give Anthony a chance to even contact them.

If you are curious about what he has available for sale, check out his ebay listings under his user ID canucks109610 often to see what unusual jerseys he is able to acquire, but don't fit his personal collection.

To contact Anthony to talk about international jerseys or ask any questions, he can be reached at iihfjerseycollector@gmail.com. He can find you jerseys from almost any country you may be looking for and loves to talk jerseys.

Reader Submission - 1996-97 Colorado Avalanche Patrick Roy Jersey

Our next reader submitted jersey is a Colorado Avalanche Patrick Roy jersey from reader Mick Semantel. Here's what Mick has to say about his jersey:

This jersey is a size 48 Starter mesh. A VERY comfortable jersey. I love the material. I found this on the Denver Craigslist for $40. I had lived out there for many years, and still have friends and family out there. I had a friend pick it up for me. I got hooked up by Burnaby Joe (a well known Colorado Avalanche jersey collector). He hooked me up with nameplate material and dropped it off at Denver Athletic (the company who letters the on ice jerseys for the Avalanche).

Thanks to Mick for taking the time to send in the photographs and story of his great looking jersey. We sure miss seeing the "mountainous" stripes at the bottom of the jersey, which were lost in the transition to the Reebok Edge jerseys.

This particular jersey dates to the 1996-97 season based on the logos on the rear hem. The Avalanche wore Starter jerseys for their first two seasons in Colorado before changing to CCM, and this jersey, with the S-star logo and separate black and orange NHL shield differ from the Stanley Cup winning 1995-96 jerseys which had the S-star logo above the word "Starter" in a box next to the NHL shield in a white box outlined in blue, with both boxes then outlined in white.

1995-96 Starter logo style

It's obviously nice if you can have your jersey lettered by the same people who do the on ice jersey for that team. We've seen plenty of Avalanche jerseys which had issues with the white being smooth, non-glaicer twill, the outlines around the numbers being a flat silver/grey instead of the sparkly metallic twill and using the wrong font for the names on the back, noted for having round letter O's and C's, rather than the proper tall, oval shaped ones with straight sides.

A Colorado Avalanche jersey with the wrong font for the name on the back

Reader Submission - Cincinnati Stingers Jersey Conversion

Today's reader submitted jersey is one of vision, creativity and skill, a Do It Yourself project which turned an inexpensive thrift store find into a great looking retro jersey anyone would be proud to own.

Here is reader Will Scheibler's story:

The jersey I am submitting is a homemade jersey conversion. It started off a Central Saloon Bruins screen printed jersey acquired at a thrift store, and was made into a Cincinnati Stingers jersey with a sewn crest and number.

The first pic shows the conversion part way through. I have removed the black shoulders and serged and sewed in some yellow shoulders and white jersey material obtained from another jersey. The black tackle twill name bar to cover 'Central Saloon' hasn't been sewn in yet.

The next pic shows the jersey inside out and you can see when the screen printed 'B' logo was and where the Stingers crest has been sewn over it.

Here is the front of the Stingers jersey. I made the crest entirely of tackle twill material with each layer zig-zag stitched on.

The back of the jersey has tackle twill #18 sewn over the original screen printed #18.

Here's a close up of some of the stitching on the Stingers crest.

The Cincinatti Stingers played in the WHA from 1975-1979. According to The Internet Hockey Database, players that wore #18 included Jacques Locas, Murray Myers, Gary Veneruzzo, and Peter Marsh. The online site of the Cincinnati Stingers Historical Society is unfortunately currently down.

I have no idea what league or group the Central Saloon Bruins played in.

Thanks go to Will for sharing his DIY project with us. The results turned out great, better than even the most commonly found retail version of this jersey available to collectors, which leaves out the white border on the black crest, which suffers terribly from having the black crest disappearing into the black of the jersey, reaffirming the old adage "If you want it done right, do it yourself."

Reader Submission - Raiders beer league jersey

A few weeks ago we invited readers of Third String Goalie to submit their own jerseys without any limitations of what kind of hockey jersey we were open to featuring, be it a replica, authentic or game worn jersey from the NHL, a national team, the minors, juniors, college, high school or even a pond hockey jersey.

We're pleased to say a number of readers have taken us up on our offer and we plan to feature their submissions on Sundays as long as they keep coming in. So far the variety and quality of the submissions have been downright amazing and we're looking forward to sharing with them you. We're sure your going to be impressed and hopefully motivated to send in the best from your collection.

Our first reader submission comes from Tris from Milton, Ontario and a 2007-2010 Raiders beer league jersey.

Tris writes:

Beer league is the colloquial name for a competitive adult recreational hockey league. Some are there to live out lost dreams, others are there to lose some weight, but all are there for the beer.

I present my beer league team jersey, which we used from 2007 to 2010. Our team in simply called the Raiders. As an avid hockey jersey collector, I wanted to go all-out with my team's uniform. We previously used very simple screen printed jerseys and I wanted to do better.

Manufactured by Athletic Knit, this pro-weight jersey sports fully embroidered logos, tackle twill letters and numbers and a fight strap.

The jersey's resemblance to Team Germany's uniform (2002-2004) is no coincidence. I liked the style of it, and AK was able to craft a team set from one of the jerseys I own. This style is not in AK's stock catalogue, so it was a custom order.

A small embroidery shop crested and customized the team set. The main logo, which I had been working on for a few months prior, is actually a cross between the Gwinnett Gladiators of the ECHL, and the defunct Ottawa Rebel of the National Lacrosse League. The secondary logo on the shoulders pays tribute to our original logo.

We looked stellar on the ice... just didn’t always play like it.

After a few seasons of use, both during the winter and summer (yes, summer ice hockey), we found that these jerseys proved to be slightly overkill for average-joe use. Although very durable, they added a little too much drag while playing. This was especially felt during the summer months.

The successor is the following fully dye-sublimated Pro-Fit brand jersey, which we began using in the spring of 2010.

I was able to create the entire design for this jersey in Adobe Illustrator. The manufacturer then printed the pattern and artwork directly onto the material.

The primary and secondary marks were revamped to take advantage of the gradients that are possible using the sublimation method. However, I elected not to go with a bizarre design like you usually see with sublimated jerseys. I stuck with a very simple pattern, borrowing from the Anaheim Ducks’ colour scheme.

This jersey proved to be better suited for our use as it is much lighter than its predecessor, not to mention that jersey re-orders are easier as no minimums are required.

We think our readers will agree that those are a great looking pair of jerseys and a great way to kick off our reader submissions. The bar has certainly been set high in the beer league/pond hockey category and we can't thank Tris enough for being the first to send in a submission as well as providing such excellent photos.

If you would like to submit your own jersey, again without limitations, send it in along with a paragraph or two telling us why you like the jersey, how you got it, what makes it special to you or even a full-blown Third String Goalie-style history lesson - whatever you feel like sharing.

When sending in pictures, they must be at least 425 pixels wide at a minimum, which is actually rather small. If you send in larger pictures, don't worry, we will be resize them to fit our format for you.

A photo of the front of the jersey is obviously needed and a picture of the back is certainly preferred, especially if it has been customized with a name and number. You can also include any relevant detail photos if needed to tell your story, especially of any additional patches.

Lay the jersey flat, as shown below, and shoot the photos from as straight overhead as possible with the arms of the jersey folded so they run straight down the sides of the jersey.

If you have a jersey in your collection that comes to mind and you'd like to share it with us and your fellow readers, please submit your pictures and a story to go with it, no matter how brief or detailed, to spyboy1@gmail.com and we look forward to seeing your favorites!